When it comes to annoying skin-related issues, the post-cold dry nose/upper lip is right up there for me. My skin is pretty dry naturally, so when you add in a week worth of nose blowing, the skin around my nose and upper lip literally just cannot cope. It gets sore, it goes red, and man alive does the skin flake off. I often then pick at the skin (classy) which makes it even more sore, and sometimes even bleed (attractive).
Then what follows are several weeks of exfoliating with dry flannels, and slapping on a load of face moisturiser. And bad nose foundation, literally for ages. Flaky, nasty, dry foundation around my nose. Because lets be honest, no foundation deals well with dry flakiness, whatever they may claim.
However recently, I came across (was recommended) something which helped me in my battle against the post-cold nose syndrome. I was at a Christmas meal, and was slapping some Vaseline on my sore little schnozzle, and my friend's girlfriend was like "woah woah woah, don't use Vaseline, are you crazy!?" (OK slight exaggeration, but her reaction did make me feel a bit like I'd sat there wiping engine oil on my nose) She then chucked me a little red tube of Paw Paw moisturising balm and told me to try that instead. Slightly shamed by her reaction to my tin of Vaseline, I promptly went into Boots the next day and purchased a tube of Paw Paw.
I'd seen Lucas' Paw Paw ointment before, advertised as the "go to" product for celebs such as Miranda Kerr, but when I'd seen it was the same consistency as Vaseline, I just assumed it was a posh (and pricier) Vaseline. So not worth it.
I can safely say I was wrong. Although the Paw Paw balm is extremely similar in consistency to Vaseline, I'd say it is ever so slightly lighter in consistency. It feels less like something you'd use to grease a squeaky door hinge, and more like something designed for your skin (no offence Vaseline).
And it works. Slapping some of this on my nose and lips definitely killed off the post-cold effects so much faster than anything else I've used. When I now have colds, I do find myself putting it on during the day at work (much to the intrigue of my colleague, who pointed out she normally only does this kind of thing in the privacy of her own home) but it's so good both as a preventative measure and a treatment. My nose was definitely so much less flaky after using it.
I've also found other uses for it. I get patches of dry scaly eczema on my hands and fingers, which are so frustrating but flare up all the time from washing up / washing my hands during the day. I don't like to use steroid cream too much, so started putting the Paw Paw on. I was so impressed with the result. It doesn't clear them up as fast as the steroid cream (obviously) but because it's so moisturising and it sticks to the skin, it did such a good job of keeping the patches at bay. I also now squeeze some on my hand with my regular hand cream, to give my usual hand cream a bit more gusto.
The tube I bought was the PapayaGold version and was £5.99 for 25g, which isn't as cheap as Vaseline, but then in my head I figure the Vaseline simply doesn't work so it's wasted money anyway. Plus the tube has lasted me much longer than I thought it would. I also prefer the squeezy tube to Vaseline's tin. The tube hasn't got messy at all, and am I the only one who finds the lids of Vaseline tins SO hard to get off!? I'm now running out of my PapayaGold, and have just bought some of the Lucas PawPaw ointment online to see how that compares (I'll keep you posted). But either way, if you suffer from dry skin patches or if the post-cold nose/lip happens to you, then I'd say it's worth carrying one of these around in your bag. It's a little god send in my opinion.
